At 94, Franca, a widow who is almost blind and has lived in the northern outskirts of Florence since the 1960s, is at risk of ending up on the streets. Her case lays bare the barbarity of a ruthless system in which a landlord can decide overnight to triple the rent, placing profit above human dignity and human life.
The media attention surrounding her case has forced the landlord to abandon the rent increase. However, this does nothing to diminish the gravity of the situation, which fully reflects the state of housing rights in a city like Florence and the living conditions of thousands of proletarians.
Franca’s case is not an isolated one. Across Florence, the right to housing is denied every day to those struggling to make ends meet on precarious wages and poverty-level pensions. While families can no longer afford their rent, more than 25,000 apartments in Florence are being deliberately left empty by major property groups, and the streets of our neighbourhoods are being handed over to speculation driven by short-term tourist rentals.
The result is a city that progressively drives out its own inhabitants, workers, students and the elderly, after they have struggled and made sacrifices to build their lives there.
For the working class, housing is a basic need. For major landlords and speculative investment funds, it is merely a source of profit.
Responsibility for this situation lies with both local administrations and national governments, which have protected the interests of large property owners instead of defending workers. The tourist rental market and property speculation continue to receive incentives, while funding for rent assistance is cut and billions are allocated to military spending instead of social services and public housing. The supposed restrictions on short-term rentals touted by Mayor Funaro have proved to be little more than a fig leaf, allowing those who already profit from speculation to hide behind them while securing years of moratorium, without returning a single home to local residents.
As Communist Front and Communist Youth Front, we stand in solidarity with Franca and her family, bringing her story to the forefront of a struggle that concerns the entire city.
To put an end to this barbarity, clear measures are needed: the recovery and allocation for social housing, through expropriation, of the thousands of vacant properties held by major property groups; an end to the proliferation of short-term rentals; a halt to evictions; and an extraordinary public housing programme funded by cutting military spending.
Building class solidarity and organisation in our neighbourhoods, workplaces and places of study is the only way to defend our lives and our future. Our lives or their profits.
